The Path
by lulgijak
Summary: Fuu seeks guidance for her life and receives some paternal wisdom. Warning, contains spoilers!


_Here is a short ficlet that primarily serves to shed some light on and provide a little more closure to Fuu's relationship with her father... _

She was fully aware it was all a dream as Fuu wandered a small road curving through the countryside. Yawning past her line of vision on either side, orchards of cherry trees dropped pink and white petals like confetti while she inhaled their sweet fragrance from a distance. She paused for a brief moment; her lone companion a few paces ahead, stopping as well.

Who her mysterious escort was she had yet to ascertain – his face was hidden and he never spoke. At first she'd assumed him to be Mugen or Jin – but now realized he was neither. He was nevertheless, by some strange dream reasoning, someone she felt a close bond with.

The pair followed the path side by side a while longer as it wound on, wordlessly absorbing the scenery in each other's company. Fuu meanwhile found herself growing increasingly tense with each step. Questions she wasn't yet able to name danced unsettlingly around the outskirts of her consciousness as she got the inexplicable feeling she was about to encounter some life-altering revelation. Slowly, she began wondering where this path went, and whether she wanted to follow.

As if to answer her unspoken question the narrow road widened abruptly into a street that could have passed for any major freeway in Edo – accept far more sinister. Hundreds of people clogged the market place, most (pausing only long enough for personal business) hurrying along as though eager to be anywhere else. Everywhere shadowy figures lurked like specters in the corners and alleys. The whole city appeared overrun with criminals.

Fuu's astonished eye caught a couple of forceful men tormenting a brothel worker. The girl felt her hackles instinctively rise at the old familiar feeling. Her traveling companion momentarily forgotten, the indignant fifteen year old opened her mouth to protest before a terrible scream seized her attention: a gang of yakuza proceeded to savagely cut down a cornered boy on the street as cops and bystanders rushed on, ignoring the youth's plaintive cries.

Blood boiling, the astounded girl shouted, demanding someone stop the killers. She at last rushed to aid the unfortunate boy herself only to feel one of the thugs yank her arm and twist it painfully behind her.

Fuu cried out, desperately trying to rouse herself from the nightmare, but to no avail. The rough hands only gripped her tighter, grinding the bones of her wrist against one another. Shrill insane laughter crackled hot against her neck and sent a jolt of panic through her small frame.

She struggled against her assailant's grip uselessly even as he began steering her into a dark alley. Terror suddenly rose like bile in her throat, strangling her useless cries for help. Useless, she realized numbly, because no one dared try saving her.

Amidst her growing panic where she felt she must certainly wake up or die of fright, the bleak circumstances took an abrupt and amazing turn for Fuu. Into the blackness, a fragile sign of hope with wings as pale as lamplight materialized and fluttered onto her right shoulder. The butterfly, like a tiny message lost on the wind only to happily reach its destination whispered two words: "_follow me…_"

She then watched the delicate apparition bob gently over her attacker's head and out between the buildings as suddenly as it had appeared. The light of freedom glared in its wake, beckoning the young woman.

"You're mine," grated the ugly voice behind her forcefully, "and I'll never let you leave – you're gonna die in this stinking hole."

A righteous fury unexpectedly welled within her chest, spreading through her whole body.

Newly resolved, she somehow found untapped strength to wrest her wrist out of the monster's grip, and with one swift motion her tanto was unsheathed and trained on him. The amazed thug took one dismayed look at the small, charm-adorned blade; his cocky demeanor instantly dissolved. Much to Fuu's amazed relief, he slowly backed away.

"Get out of here," she barked, still brandishing the weapon, "now!"

Stumbling backward, he turned and fled from her.

_Wow, now I know I'm dreaming_, marveled the small woman, staring nervously after her would be killer.

Fuu took her first tentative step into daylight, once again spotting her mysterious companion heading away as if unaware she hadn't followed; glancing cautiously around for any more ambushes, she hurried to catch up with him.

He finally came to a stop on the outskirts of the city and sat down on a small hill. All at once it hit her why he was so familiar – could it really be him? She'd seen that same retreating back on numerous other occasions in her dreams. His face was what she now needed to see.

The samurai's head inclined toward the ground as she approached him from the front. The same butterfly lighted on his shoulder and the mysterious man looked up, shaded eyes peering out at her from under the straw hat he wore. Fuu gasped as she stared back at the now healthy face of the father she remembered from her distant childhood. For a moment she reverted to a lost little six-year-old surrounded by sunflowers – emotions engulfed her before she could utter a word.

Kasumi Seizou removed his hat and expressed a slight but warm smile to his daughter.

"Why have you brought me here," she croaked, quickly casting her large brown eyes downward.

"You are the one who've come here looking for something," he replied evenly, "you sought _me_ out."

Fuu shook her head sadly, still not looking at the deceased samurai before her, "I don't need anything from you – I've done fine without you for a long time now."

True enough; you don't need me," confessed the other, "however, now that your journey is over you've reached another turning point in life. After every hardship: hunger, weariness, brutality, imprisonment, grief – merely for the chance of finding a father that abandoned you long ago – there is something else you've searched for but still lack. You need guidance."

Her feeling of smallness increasing, Fuu recalled once again how she used to pray to _Kami-sama_ – the same god her father served – with all her childish might in the hopes that somehow her prayers would link her to the man she missed. Most of her life she'd grappled with the reasons why he left until convinced she no longer cared anymore. Only after witnessing his death had she truly realized how much she loved him, at last finding the grace to forgive.

Why then was she suddenly feeling so angry and hurt? Why did his sincere apology which had moved her to tears only days earlier now seem so inadequate?

"I can't forgive you," she blurted around the lump swelling in her throat, "I want to, but I just can't do it! I don't know how."

Seizou's eyes never left her as he spoke, "it will take time, Fuu. I understand; I struggled to forgive the people who raided our village and murdered many of my fellow Christians. However, you've seen enough (even in your brief life) to know that you can't allow past injustices to poison your heart." He paused before asking, "Do you remember how we used to pray?"

"I haven't done that in years," she admitted, looking back over her shoulder at the ruthless city full of desperate people, she'd only just left. Glancing back at him, she saw to her curiosity, her father gazing intently in the opposite direction past her shoulder to the horizon.

"Long had I prayed I would see you again before the end of my life – whatever it meant to you, our brief reunion was the fulfillment of my last wish," he spoke so softly she had to strain to hear him as she'd done while standing over his death bed, "Thank you, Fuu, for finding me."

The young woman could only stare through the mist clouding her vision. Everything was so vivid, though only a dream it was almost too much for her tender heart to bear.

"Like I said, you have reached a turning point in your life," he continued. "The choice is now up to you; dwell in the city," he gestured behind him where hundreds of people passed each other aimlessly on the congested streets, "or out in the wilderness." He now indicated a thin foot path she hadn't noticed before that began at the place they both sat and wound through the cherry trees disappearing into the wilds beyond. "The only other choice is to remain here between the two worlds, unable to grow beyond this point until your soul stagnates."

Fuu looked uncertainly in either direction, then replied slowly, "Well, the city may be a dangerous place, but there's at least some safety in numbers – I wouldn't be alone. In the wilderness I'd be an exile from society."

"On the contrary, the wilderness _is_ a refuge and you're guaranteed a Guide who'll _never_ abandon you."

"I don't understand," she spoke up, "will you be with me?"

"I will be waiting for you when you reach the end," he replied.

The butterfly that had until now rested on Seizou's shoulder, took flight.

Somewhere in the distance a morning bird sang and Fuu could feel the dreamscape around her dissolve into shadows. Without warning, she was back in the little hut on Ikitsuki; through the window above the first traces of dawn lit the horizon a pale mauve. The young woman wiped the stale tears from her cheeks and stood to greet the early morning. Nearby, Mugen and Jin were still out for the count, recovering from their last and nearly fatal battles. Alone in her wakefulness, Fuu silently dressed and went out to her father's grave to pray.


End file.
